Social Media Marketing Consultant.docx

Social Media Marketing Consultant In today’s competitive digital economy, it is a must for any business to have a good and impactful online presence on various social media platforms. As more and more new users are arriving in the digital world, social media marketing is now the most dominant player in the field of advertising. Unlike the old advertising methods (TV, newspapers, surveys), social media platforms give live information on customers’ views and performance of the brand. Also, social media marketing is much more cost efficient. A single post or tweet can change a lot of things, for example, iPhone 6 bending video became viral in less than a week and was viewed more than 70 million times, which forced the biggest tech giant in the world - Apple, to come up with an explanation. Even a kid can upload photos and videos on social media. But it's not that easy. Marketing online is an art. It is the combined effort of trend analysis, well-crafted strategy and planned execution. Startups or even big companies are not experts in social media marketing by themselves. They require social media experts or the ‘Social Media Marketing Consultants’ to run their campaigns and advertisements online. Social media consultants have the power of reaching out to target consumer base and also engaging with them on various social media platforms. An expert social media consultant can increase the revenue of a startup by multiple folds in less than 12 months. A Social Media Marketing (SMM) strategy can make or break the business of a company. SMM is everywhere - it can change the direction of elections in minutes, it can force tech giants to make apologies to the public, it can bring a huge first day collection for a mediocre movie as well. And that’s the reason why good quality SMM consultants are in huge demand. But how to become a successful SMM consultant? Before being an expert on social media, you need to have a good sense of marketing first. You can learn and take examples from marketing consultants across fields. But unlike other marketing platforms, SMM is ever evolving. What is relevant today might be obsolete tomorrow. Being a step ahead of changes and analysing behaviour of the online public is crucial for a SMM consultant. Below are some skills required to be a step ahead in this field: Basic Understanding of Human Behaviour

For a person who is constantly trying to force people to make a decision, the skill of undestanding the human psychology is very crucial. One should be able to build the brand image in the minds of people. An SMM consultant should also be aware of the shortcomings of the product/brand and should have a decisive strategy to counter that. Creating Creative Content In millions of photos, videos, blog posts, and tweets posted daily, people just scroll down on their mobiles, and only a countable number of posts are creative enough to remain in their minds. Amul is the best example for creativity. Their satirical takes on current issues in their advertisements has been popular since years. These are the kinds that get the maximum shares and attention. Technical Skills Graphic designing and website building are part of the literacy now. It is known to everybody that images are more effective than words and videos are better than images. So you need basic skills in animations, graphics, etc to create such content. There numerous free online tools to learn and create such content. Community Building If there is one thing that every company today roots for, then it has to be a loyal fan base. Having a consistent following from a large group of people across various social media channels is the most important thing to establish a public relationship with the brand. A brand no longer represents a product nowadays. It represents a statement, a feeling which unites people across the globe, and it is for THAT feeling, people continue to show trust in that particular brand. A brand is a status symbol nowadays. The best example is OnePlus. They have a loyal and critical online fanbase. The feeling that unites them is that the phone in their hand is no less than a 1000 dollar flagship. OnePlus takes a lot of suggesstions from their customers to learn from their past mistakes. This is how you increase audience engagement and build trust. In Depth Understanding of Different Platforms You should be aware of the special powers of each social media platform. For example, ad campaigns on Twitter are usually a failure, because that is a place for people to engage in conversations and not to like and share random funny posts. Also, Instagram is not suitable for sharing political content. People come on different platforms with different mindsets. You should be able to locate your audiences correctly and cater those mindsets in a well planned manner. LinkedIn and Yelp are the best platforms for information on business and related personalities.

Return of Investment (ROI) It refers to the amount of profit a company gets by investing in a particular domain, in this case, SMM. You should be able to measure the results of your efforts put on social media. All the major social media channels have built-in analytics tools. These tools are very helpful in building the future strategy. Conclusion In this competitive world, it is not that easy for new SMM Consultants to enter the game. SMM consulting starts much before the actual consulting. It is very important to market your own skill correctly to correct people. You may need to work for free in the initial days. But it should be the 3rd or 4th contract with that company where you should be aiming for higher pay. This creates trust and builds a solid relationship between you and your client. You should help your clients realise the value you can bring to them. Consulting isn’t just posting for your client on social media accounts, it is, in fact, helping them understand their own problems and devising a strategy alongside them and then providing the ultimate prescription.